Sabre Airline Solutions, the leading provider of software and services to the airline industry, announced today that Air China, China's National Flag Carrier, has signed a $15 million USD agreement for Sabre to implement a modern Flight Operations Control Center.

The project, Air China's largest of this kind with a foreign partner, will help it attain better aircraft utilization and fuel efficiency. The system will also automate the management of over 6,000 cabin and cockpit crew in a way that is both efficient for the airline and desirable to the crew.

Sabre will provide Air China with its Sabre(R) AirOps(TM) Suite including Sabre(R) Movement Manager, Sabre(R) Dispatch Manager, Sabre(R) Load Manager; and Sabre(R) AirCrews(R) Crew Management Suite. Sabre's airline consulting practice will play a major role in using deep industry expertise to implement the technology solution.

"This is a business project that is focused on Air China reaching new levels of operational excellence. Air China already serves 106 destinations in 22 countries. As we expand our fleet and crew over the next two years, it will be critical for us to manage our operations using integrated scalable technology in combination with solid business processes. This is what Sabre will do with us," said Zhu Songyan, general manager of IT, Air China.

"Our operations centre will be of the world's best, as we prepare for the Beijing Olympics and beyond."

The Flight Operations Control Center is the heart of an airline's daily operations. This integrated center coordinates the day-to-day, minute-to-minute operation of the airline, providing a centralized, real-time operational control and management of the airline's overall flight operation, including flight schedule, aircraft movement control, dispatch, flight planning, weight and balance, crew management and other aspects of flight coordination.

Air China is not a new customer for Sabre, having earlier deployed Sabre(R) AirPrice(TM) systems and Sabre(R) AirFlite(TM) Planning and Scheduling Suite to optimize its flight scheduling and pricing functions.

"Air China is adopting the changes necessary to ensure it can maintain and improve its on-time performance even as the carrier becomes larger and more complex. With this project, Air China will have all the necessary real-time information and decision support tools for the management of disruptions due to bad weather, for example. This means Air China passengers can look forward to minimal inconveniences in the event of unavoidable flight cancellations or delays," said Andrew Powell, regional vice president, Sabre Airline Solutions.

Sabre Airline Solutions also provides integrated flight operations solutions to China Southern and China Eastern.At the completion of this project, 89% of all mainland Chinese flights will be planned using Sabre software, and 82% of all mainland Chinese flights will be managed operationally, using Sabre software -- the result of Sabre's 10-year relationship with Chinese airlines.